We bought Anne Frank Hous tickets before we left on our trip.  We learned that the tickets sell out quickly.  They are for a specific date and time and you need to arrive within 15 minutes of your time.  I underestimated the time it would take from the train station to the house and we only had five minutes to spare when we arrived.  It turned out to be a good decision because the lines are longer at the beginning of the time period. I did not bring my backpack with me because I read that they cannot accommodate them in the cloakroom of the museum. That is a lie.  I saw several backpacks there.  I think they are referring to giant overnight type backpacks.  

You are not allowed to take any pictures while you are there, so I have nothing to show you.  The rooms are all empty and therefore there is little to take a picture of in the first place. Otto Frank requested that nothing be left in any of the rooms.  The tour includes an audio guide.  The Secret Annex (I don’t know why they call it the Anne Frank Hous, it was not a home) is the back part of the warehouse where her father worked.  You cannot see where they lived from the street or even tell that the building goes back that far.  The tour begins in the rooms of the warehouse and give you background on the family, the people who worked there and helped the family, and the other family that hid there too.  The audio guide reads part of Anne’s diary and I felt a profound sadness the entire time I was there. The audio guide stops when you enter the Secret Annex.  

The original bookcase to the Secret Annex is still open at the doorway.  It is a very cramped area to get through and the stairs are straight up.  In each room they have only one or two artifacts from the time they were there because most of their belongings were trashed.  There are a few things that were given away to neighbors or kept by those who hid them and they are what are on display. For example, there is a marble set that Anne gave to a neighbor and some books that people in two families read. The walls of the room Anne stayed in with her sister and later, Fritz, still have the walls covered with magazine pictures that they put there (they are behind a covering).  The original kitchen sink is there as well as the toilet and sink that they used.  When you are in Peter’s room you can see up into the attic and think about how that is the only time they could see the sun and clouds (all the windows were always covered). 

After experiencing where they were hidden and reading about when they were discovered, I was certain someone told the Nazis where they were located.  After some internet research I discovered that they named Arnold van den Bergh as the betrayer.  There is even evidence that Otto Frank was told who it was when he was alive.  Van den Bergh needed to give the Nazis good information in order to keep himself and his wife alive. Since van den Bergh is also Jewish this information was kept secret.  In case you don’t know the end story, the only person who survived that lived in the Secret Annex was her father, Otto. The people who hid them also survived.  Anne’s mother died before her children.  Anne and her sister both died of typhus because of poor living conditions. 

The last thing you get to see is Anne’s diary.  You not only get to see her diary, but the writing she did that she wanted published as a book, a notebook of stories that she wrote, and a notebook filled with quotes that she loved.  They have a video of her father talking about the diary.  It is very touching.  He talks about how he didn’t realize his daughter had such deep thoughts and how a parent may never really know their children. He wanted to fulfill her dream of being a real writer. 

After the visiting the Secret Annex, we headed to the Van Gogh museum.  The tram system is excellent and it was supposed to be an easy ride. However, there was some type of construction or accident and our tram kept getting cancelled, so we walked until there was a station with running trams.  We had to buy a ticket online for the Van Gogh museum as well.  I bought it the day before we went.  There is also a time that you are supposed to enter, but they give you 30 minutes to do so.  It was lucky I bought the ticket because all times were sold out when we arrived. 

The Van Gogh Museum had two exhibits. One exhibit is the permanent collection, which is included in the ticket price and you can to pay extra for the special exhibit on the paintings from the end of Van Gogh’s life (he painted 75 paintings in 70 days).  You also have to pay extra for an audio guide, but the lockers are free.  We started at the top floor because the museum was packed, so we saw his life in reverse.  Van Gogh died at the age of 37 and he didn’t begin painting until he was 27, so he does not have a huge collection of work.  The museum includes works from his artist friends such as Gauguin, who he lived with for a short period of time.  

The exhibit was very crowded and those paintings that had audio guide numbers were generally surrounded. It made it difficult to navigate and read the plaques next to the paintings and I found it very frustrating.  There were also entire rooms that only had one Van Gogh painting.  I really enjoyed the room with all his self portraits (although they put one of them on an upper floor).  I thought they did a good job of explaining his life and the process he went through as a painter.  Honestly I was a bit disappointed in the museum.  I had higher expectations. 

We had lunch at a fast food burger place that had a 4.9 rating.  The burgers tasted weird and the fries were ok.  I also tried a Dutch croquette, which I liked.  My husband was not happy with the food at all.  We decided our feet needed a break after all the walking both around museums and the city, so we booked a canal cruise.  

I did some research on canal cruises and there doesn’t seem to be a company that rises above the rest.  They do suggest you go in the evening or on a 75 minute ride instead of the usual 60, so we just picked a random place and were pleased with the result.  The driver of the boat was a native of Amsterdam and talked about how much he loved the city.  There was a recorded narration as we cruised and when it paused he usually added some tidbit of information.  My favorite was telling us that it would cost a million euro just to have a houseboat parked in a canal, that is if you could secure a permit, which is nearly impossible.  

The houseboats were my favorite. There are so many varieties and when you are on a cruise, you can see inside some of them.  They were so cool.  There seemed to be two types: one was like a barge and the other was an old sailing vessel in which the removed the mast (but some of them kept their masts as well).  I found the cruise to be relaxing, but it was difficult to take any pictures due to the windows.  

After the cruise we headed back to our hotel, which was pretty standard for a European hotel. We didn’t have any complaints.  After a bit of a rest, we headed out to dinner at a nearby restaurant.  We wanted something off the lunch menu and since it wasn’t too busy the chef said he would make it for us.  It was called Local Flavor.  I had a poke bowl with smoked salmon and it was delicious. It was my first poke bowl and they had some great sauces that mixed well together with the vegetables and salmon.  It was a pretty successful day.